It’s a name, Zophar.
One of Job’s “friends.”
And apparently he is “angry” at Job, though he had come to town to “comfort” him!
Job’s “outburst” back in chapter 3 had been the catalyst to unleash the wrath of all 3 of his visitors. (Chapter 3 is where Job “cursed” the day of his birth and the night of his conception.)
Zophar speaks less than any of Job’s “accusers,” for that’s exactly what he and Eliphaz and Bildad have become. And Zophar drops out of the 3 cycles of speeches (against Job) early, he pontificating only twice! Each of the other two, three times, three tirades!
But today (from Job chapter 11) I want us to notice one thing Zophar said. These words must have “cut” Job to the very core of his being!
But, wait a minute … can mere words “hurt” that deeply? Listen to Proverbs 18:8 … “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” Then maybe Proverbs 26:22 … “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” The very same words, TWICE, in a single Book of the Bible!
YES, words can hurt!
But Zophar did not care.
Now let me share with you exact Zophar’s statement, boldly hurled directly in Job’s face. “Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.” Job 11:6
Wow!
“Job, you should be suffering TWICE as much as you are.”
“You should have lost even more than you did!”
That’s cruel!
I think these 3 friends get progressively WORSE, more and more SEVERE in their verbal attacks. Though in the end they lose their argument! God defends His Servant Job!
“Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.”
The noun “iniquity” Zophar employed is “avon” (pronounced “aw-vone”) and means something “bent, twisted, perverted, depraved.” That’s how sin looks in God’s Eyes, true. But Zophar misapplied it to Job, as the source of the Patriarch’s trials. IT WAS NOT! Job was enduring all his burdens because his faith was being proved by God … to the Devil nonetheless! And via Scripture (Job’s Book being in print now) … to you and me and the whole world!
And the verb “exacteth” one time (in the King James Version) means “to deprive.” Zophar thinks Job should have been “deprived” of even more than he was! And 4 times (“nashah” in Hebrew) is translated “to forget!” As if Zophar felt God should have “forsaken” Job long, long ago!
I wonder how Job is going to respond to this barb?
And that my friends we will learn tomorrow, the Lord willing.
I know how Jesus responded to such taunts. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7
Wow!
Jesus … “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” 1st Peter 2:24
Hint: Job does well, but not sinlessly well. Not like Jesus!
Hallelujah, what a Lord we serve!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell